I am planning to appear for GPEN in this week. I have solved the practice tests and my score was not that great. Is the real exam more difficult than the practice tests? As its an open book exam can I carry printed notes and cheat sheets along? Any last minute suggestions/tips would be appreciated!

I am planning to appear for GPEN in this week. I have solved the practice tests and my score was not that great. Is the real exam more difficult than the practice tests? As its an open book exam can I carry printed notes and cheat sheets along? Any last minute suggestions/tips would be appreciated!

Looking forward to a reply.

Thanks.

It's going to be the same or slightly more difficult than the practice exams. You can bring in any paper resources you want: books, printed notes, etc.

Only advice at this point would be to review your weak areas from the practice tests and ensure you're as prepared as you can be.

Thanks for your reply. I attempted the exam yesterday. Unfortunately I did not clear it. My score was 72 %.Would be giving a reattempt soon. The exam was tougher than the practice tests. I have started studying already on my weak areas. Hopefully will clear it the next time. Fingers crossed!!

One piece of advice. A few months ago Eric Cole told my class that SANS makes sure that you won't get the same questions on a retake exam so I wouldn't count on getting any boost from having seen some of the questions.

Best case scenario you have the course books and can put together a thorough index. If you don't have the books, I've heard others say "counterhack reloaded" is a good book to read and take in with you. It's older but written by the course author so...

Hopefully the new test will give you two more practice exams? If so take real good notes on test one and adjust your materials accordingly. Do the same for test two and hopefully you'll have your info well organized and searchable by that point.

I haven't taken my GPEN yet so I can't give you test specific advice but good luck!!!

Last edited by azmatt on Sat Apr 20, 2013 1:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Ah, damn, passing for that one is 74%. I think others are as low as 67%, such as GCIA.

I'm not sure if you'll get more practice exams with a retake because that is significantly cheaper. If you don't, you may want to buy another one or two of those and take meticulous notes.

It's difficult to give you more advice since I don't know what your weak areas are. I always print off the help information and/or man page for any command I think might be relevant. GIAC is pretty good about asking scenario-based questions instead of command flag trivia, but a few questions like that tend to make it in, and you don't want to leave easy points on the table because you can't remember whether the correct option is -F or -f. The printed binders I put together for each exam are usually around 200-300 pages.

I cannot get more practice exams with the reattempt, but azmatt thank you for telling me that I won't get the same questions on a retake exam. I got confused on SQL injection, DNS zone transfers and iptables questions in the exam. It would be great if you guys could tell me some good links where I can clear my doubts.

For me, I self-studied by taking the Offensive-Security course "Penetration Testing with Backtrack". It was the best preparation. All I had to study after was some Windows based tools and read about laws and ethics. I barely used my notes in the exam and with no prior experience, I passed with a good score.

Honestly, I realized that playing with the tools covered in the exam is by far the best way of learning. You don't have to go too deep with each tool, but knowing how they works is key to being successful with this exam.

But since you were pretty close on your first attempt, you'll be good next time!

@JohnE, I dont want to buy more practice tests as I already have invested a lot.@UKSecurityGuy, All the best and hope my experience and this post helps you to clear GPEN.@impelse, Dint use it.@H1t M0nk3y, I completely agree with you that playing with the tools covered in the exam is by far the best way of learning. Fingers crossed for my reattempt.